Government to set digital targets for banks, payment firms

NEW DELHI: After finance minister Arun Jaitley set a target of achieving 2,500-crore digital transactions in the current financial year, banks and payment firms will soon be given tight targets to meet and their progress will be monitored on a real-time basis using a public dashboard.

The parametres will include number of Point of Sale (PoS) machines deployed, merchants onboarded, transactions enabled, etc. The proposal also includes having “challengers” to traditional banking stakeholders such as payment banks, wallets, etc, who are “hungry” for innovation to fast-track the digital drive in the country and to also prompt traditional banks to speed up their efforts.

Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, ministry of electronics and information, which has now been given the mandate for digital transactions, told ET that apart from the banks, new-age wallet firms and payment banks, key government departments will play an important role in the drive.

“The department of food and civil supplies with their five-lakh ration shops, Indian Railways with its ticketing centres, petrol pumps and educational institutes among others could play a big role in this drive,” she said, adding that the ministry is currently in the process of analysing who deals with which customer segment and therefore preparing a plan accordingly.

“State government will also be an important part of the push. States such as Andhra Pradesh have taken a lead in this,” Sundararajan added. The government will take a holistic approach to digital banking, looking at ways to incentivise as well as train merchants along with coming with a process that “systematically” resolves the technology as well as consumer-related issues. “There will be benchmark targets for banks and government departments and the progress will be monitored on a real-time basis,” said Sundararajan.

The government is betting big on new avenues for digital payments such as UPI-enabled BHIM app, Aadhaar Pay, payment banks by state-owned IndiaPost, etc. The government is also planning a massive educational campaign to train people and merchants in various kinds of digital payments.

Jaitley had also announced targets for setting up 10 lakh PoS device and 20 lakh Aadhaar Pay devices by banks. Another official said that banks will be given targets to deploy these devices as well as their progress will be moniored on a real time basis. "Just deploying the devices is not enough, they also have to train the merchants and get them onboarded the new system," the person said.

Jio’s Rs 2,399 annual plan offers 2GB per day data that costs effectively Rs 200 per month. It also offers unlimited voice and SMS. Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s Rs 2398 and Rs 2399 annual plans, on the other hand, offer 1.5GB per day data along with unlimited voice and SMS